TOXINES OF BACILLUS ANTHRACIS. 289 



by the agency of the bacilli. Various theories were 

 formerly held on this subject. One of the earliest was the 

 mechanical, according to which it was supposed that the 

 serious results were produced by extensive blocking of the 

 capillaries in the various organs by the bacilli. According 

 to another, it was supposed that the bacilli used up the 

 oxygen of the blood, thus leading to starvation of the tissues. 

 Though such modes of action may occur to a small extent, 

 we now know that in anthrax, as in other diseases, the 

 important local and general effects are produced by specific 

 poisons formed by the bacilli. We have therefore to con- 

 sider the nature of these toxic bodies. 



The Toxines of the Bacillus Anthracis. During the 

 years 1889-90 several papers were published dealing with the 

 toxines of the bacillus anthracis. Hankin, investigating the 

 means of conferring immunity against the disease, isolated 

 from cultures in a bouillon made from Liebig's meat juice 

 an albumose which he considered to be the toxine. His 

 reason for thinking so was that, while the injection of very 

 small doses of this substance (one five millionth to one ten 

 millionth of the weight of an animal) lengthened the in- 

 cubation period of the disease, and might even ward off a 

 fatal attack, the injection of larger doses hastened the death 

 of the animal. Very full researches on the subject were 

 carried out by Sidney Martin. This observer used alkali- 

 albumin as the medium on which to grow the bacillus, that 

 medium approaching most closely to its environment when 

 growing in the animal body. From cultures in this medium 

 there were isolated proto-albumose, deutero-albumose, and 

 traces of peptone. The albumoses differed from those which 

 occur in ordinary digestion, in being strongly alkaline in their 

 reaction. This alkalinity, Martin held, was due to traces of 

 an alkaloidal body of which the albumoses were the precur- 

 sors, and which occurred when the process of digestion of the 

 alkali-albumin by the bacillus was allowed to go on further. 

 By the albumoses and the alkaloid, pathogenic effects were 

 produced in animals, closely similar to those produced by 

 the bacilli themselves. Martin adduces evidence to show 



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